<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ukrainian President </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/volodymyr-zelenskyy" rel="" target="_blank" title="Volodymyr Zelenskyy"><span>Volodymyr Zelenskyy</span></a><span> has spoken about his readiness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees, but rejected the US push for </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/russia-ukraine-war-vladimir-putin-says-he-takes-donetsk-or-fighting-will-continue/2290ccaf-c271-4048-b399-48699c3d9aa4" rel="" target="_blank" title="ceding territory to Russia"><span>ceding territory to Russia</span></a><span> as he arrived in Berlin for talks with American envoys on ending the war.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Zelenskyy arrived at the Chancellery ahead of the expected talks with US President </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/donald-trump" rel="" target="_blank" title="Donald Trump"><span>Donald Trump</span></a><span>’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, part of a series of meetings in Berlin between Ukrainian, US and European officials.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Responding to journalists’ questions in audio clips on a WhatsApp group chat before the talks, Zelenskyy said that since the US and some European nations had rejected Ukraine’s push to join NATO, Kyiv expected the West to offer a set of guarantees similar to those offered to the alliance members.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>LIVE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/bondi-beach-shooting-live-updates-latest-news-headlines/5a9bbb14-ef81-45a3-985d-da6b4062460e" rel="" target="_blank" title="Twelve dead, dozens injured in mass shooting at Bondi Beach"><strong><span>Twelve dead, dozens injured in mass shooting at Bondi Beach</span></strong></a><strong></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression,” he said. “And this is already a compromise on our part.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Zelenskyy emphasised that any security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the US Congress, adding that he expected an update from his team following a meeting between Ukrainian and US military officials in Stuttgart, Germany.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said he would meet German Chancellor Friedrich Merz seperately, and possibly other European leaders later in the evening.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/russia-ukraine-war-volodymyr-zelenskyy-offers-to-drop-nato-bid-ahead-of-berlin-peace-talks/4711e8e9-965a-4871-86c7-f8e5408c0eac" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/bondi-beach-shooting-heroic-man-disarms-gunman-turns-weapon-on-him/4d5e1253-c12c-4a84-9d42-b92fa175744b" rel="" target="_blank" title="Hero sneaks up on Bondi Beach gunman, wrestles weapon from him"><strong><span>Hero sneaks up on Bondi Beach gunman, wrestles weapon from him</span></strong></a><strong></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>Tough obstacles remain</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Russiab President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control among the key conditions for peace, a demand rejected by Kyiv.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Zelenskyy said that the US had floated an idea for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donetsk and create a demilitarised free economic zone there, a proposal he rejected as unworkable.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“I do not consider this fair, because who will manage this economic zone?” he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“If we are talking about some buffer zone along the line of contact, if we are talking about some economic zone and we believe that only a police mission should be there and troops should withdraw, then the question is very simple.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If Ukrainian troops withdraw 5–10 kilometers, for example, then why do Russian troops not withdraw deeper into the occupied territories by the same distance?”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Zelenskyy described the issue as “very sensitive” and insisted on a freeze along the line of contact, saying that “today a fair possible option is we stand where we stand.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/bondi-beach-shooting-what-happened-shooters-victims-everything-we-know/88ccfc15-8a38-49f8-875c-ef82ef57d9b2" rel="" target="_blank" title="What we know about the Bondi Beach shooting"><strong><span>What we know about the Bondi Beach shooting</span></strong></a><strong></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant that Russian police and national guard would stay in parts of the Donetsk region even if they become a demilitarised zone under a prospective peace plan.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ushakov warned that a search for compromise could take a long time, noting that the US proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Speaking to Russian state TV in remarks broadcast on Sunday, Ushakov said that “the contribution of Ukrainians and Europeans to these documents is unlikely to be constructive," warning that Moscow would “have very strong objections.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ushakov added that the territorial issue was actively discussed in Moscow when Witkoff and Kushner met Putin earlier this month.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“The Americans know and understand our position," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said on Saturday that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He warned that Putin's aim was “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.”</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz warned on Saturday during a party conference in Munich.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Putin has denied plans to restore the Soviet Union or attack any European allies.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/australia-coles-woolworths-price-gouging-supermarkets/2a8de2bb-e6e0-4a82-9919-91e3ebae1aba" rel="" target="_blank" title="Fines of $10 million to face supermarkets found guilty of price-gouging"><strong><span>Fines of $10 million to face supermarkets found guilty of price-gouging</span></strong></a><strong></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h2><span>Russia and Ukraine exchange aerial attacks</span></h2></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ukraine’s air force said that Russia overnight launched ballistic missiles and 138 attack drones at Ukraine. The air force said 110 had been intercepted or downed, but missile and drone hits were recorded at six locations.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Zelenskyy said Sunday that hundreds of thousands of families were still without power in the south, east and northeast regions and work was continuing to restore electricity, heat and water to multiple regions following a large-scale attack the previous night.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Ukrainian president said that in the past week, Russia had launched over 1,500 strike drones, nearly 900 guided aerial bombs and 46 missiles of various types at Ukraine.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>“Ukraine needs peace on decent terms, and we are ready to work as constructively as possible. These days will be filled with diplomacy. It’s very important that it brings results,” Zelenskyy said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 235 Ukrainian drones late Saturday and early Sunday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In the Belgorod region, a drone injured a man and set his house ablaze in the village of Yasnye Zori, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in Uryupinsk in the Volgograd region, triggering a fire, according to regional Gov. Andrei Bocharov.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In the Krasnodar region, the Ukrainian drones attacked the town of Afipsky, where an oil refinery is located. Authorities said that explosions shattered windows in residential buildings, but didn’t report any damage to the refinery.</span></div></div>